Belt-clasp



H.H.CUBT$. BELT CLASP.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 3, 1920.

1,356,517, Patented Oct. 26, 1920.

RTTQRNE HENRY I-I. cURTIs, OF NORTH ATTLEBORO, MAS ACHU ETTS.

v BELT-CLASP.

1 0 all wii'omz't may cancer 1'2."

Be 1t known that I, HENRY H. CURTIs,-'a

citizen of the United States, residing at North Attleboro, in the county of Bristol and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful. Improvements in Belt-Clasps, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to belt clasps of that type wherein a cross piece, slidable in inclined lateral slots is employed to clamp the belt.

In order to initially introduce the cross piece into the slots in such am-anner as to permit the piece to slidefreely in slots, and at the same time prevent the accidental endwise escape of the piece is a desideratum. Heretofore it has been attempted to attain this end by employing a cross rod into the ends of which pins were driven whose heads were exterior of the fastener flanges, but the nonintegral character of such a cross piece rendered it too weak to sustain the necessary strain of use without fracture and disassemblage of parts.

It was also attempted to insert the cross piece by cutting out asection of each flange from its margin tothe end of the slot, then introduce the cross piece through the cut openings into the slots, and finally replace the removed sections and hard solder the latter into place. This operation was excessively expensive and created scars upon the flanges. I

The essential objects of my invention are to avoid enumerated difiiculties, and to attain these desired results in'a structure of increased strength and sightliness, and at a minimum of labor and expense.

To the above ends essentially my invention consists in such partsand in such com-V binations of parts, and in such steps and in such successions of steps as fall Within the scope of the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings which form a part of this specification,

Figure 1 is a plan view of a blank from which my fastener is formed,

Figs. 2 and 3, front and rear elevations respectively of the complete fastener,

Fig. 1, a longitudinal central section of the same,

Figs. 5 and 6, similar sections, enlarged, of

a portion of the fastener before and after swaging 0136111111011 respectively, and

Fig. 7, a detail vlew of the cross bar;

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct.26, 1920;

Application filed March 3, 1920; serial No. 363,011.

Like reference characters indicate like parts throughout the views;

Bymeans of suitable tools I cutfrom a thin sheet of metal a blank comprising an oblong body 9 having lateral top and bottom flanges 10 provided with inclined slots 11 terminating at one end in enlarged openings l2. Near one end of each flange is a lateral ear 14 provided with a hole or perforation 15.. I

By suitable tools the blank is so bent that the body .9 is longitudinally curved, the

flanges 10 bent at right angles to the body,

and the ears 1 1 folded down against the inner faces of the flanges. The bail 17 has its ends sprung into the holes 15 and when so journaledi the exterior of the fastener is not marred by the visibility of the bail ends, and

this is one feature of this invention.

I provide a solid cross rod comprising a solid cylindrical body 11 ground in a lathe or otherwise to form near each end a groove or neck 20, and a head 21 of a diameter in this instance equal to the diameter of the body 19. The cross rod is engaged in the slots by the following method.

Originally, as shown in Fig. 5 each slot 11 is of uniform diameter throughoutits length and continues thus as it'merges into the terminal openings 12. The slots are of less width than the diameter of the cross rod body and heads, but sufliciently greater than the diameter of'the necks 20 to permit the necks to slide in the slots. The openings 12 are of sufliciently greater diameter than that of the heads as'to allow the latter to pass easily herethrough. The rod is inserted into the flanges endwise, one head 21 passing through the openings 12, until the necks 20 are each-engaged by a flange 11, and the rod is then permitted to slide down to a lower portion of the slots.

Inorder to prevent the escape of the slidable cross rod from the slots 11 by way of the openings, the slots have their portions adjacent the openings 12 narrowed or retracted to less than the diameter of the neck 20. This result is in the present instance effected by means of swaging tools operating upon'both sides of each flange at points on opposite sides of the slots adjacent the openings. In Fig. 6 are shown by'slight dents 22 tlie points of impact of the inner set of swaging tools. The companion tool on the exterior of the flange being plane no exterior indents are present. The compression of the flanges by the swaging tools expands the material thereoi inwardly producing opposite inwardly directed angular projections or abutments 23 approaching each other to a sufficient extent to form an abutment or abutments against the neck 12 of the cross rod.

The openings 12 are herein shown as circular in outline, but it willbe understood that any other ornamental outline of opening may be employed so long as the opening is suliieiently ample to admit the heads 21.

By means of the described construction it will be observed that a solid cross rod may 1. In a belt clasp, a body, parallel flanges on opposite sides of the body provided with By this means a maximum of inclined slots, and with openings communicating with the slots through contracted spaces, a cross rod of greater diameter than the contracted spaces slidable in the slots, and heads carried'by the rod of less diameter than the openings.

2. In a belt clasp, a body, parallel flanges on opposite sides of the body provided with inclined slots and with openings communicating with the slots, abutments on the flanges intermediate the slots and openings, and a cross rod comprising a body portion, neck portions slidable in the slots and engageable by the abutments to prevent access to the openings, and heads of less diameter than the openings.

8. The method of making a belt clasp consisting in cutting and bending from a metallic blank a body, lateral flanges parallel with each other with inclined slots therein and with openings into which the slots extend, and in compressing and expanding the material of the flanges adjacent the openings to abutments extending into the slots.

In testimony whereof I have aiiixed my signature.

HENRY H. CURTIS. 

